The whole thing shocked me, but not in a good way.

    A few days ago, I wrote about the recent death of one of my fraternity brothers. I didn’t know him that well, but news of a death can still jar you, even if you barely know the person. It’s the aftermath, though, that is creating a variety of emotions for me.

    Now, there is a flurry of emails flying back and forth, because one of them asked if anyone knew if our dearly departed brother had ever accepted Jesus Christ as his personal savior.

    And, my first uncensored reaction was, “What does it matter?”

    Don’t get me wrong. I love my fraternity brothers and I know where the question came from. And, I’m not a stone-cold atheist; I struggle daily to hang on to what little faith I have. My most consistent prayer is “Help my unbelief.”

    But, I have problems with my brother’s question.

    It comes straight out of the Southern Fried Fundamentalism that permeates our region and has stunted its growth for centuries. When I open the Gospels, I find Jesus feeding the hungry, healing the sick, and teaching the poor. When asked what the greatest commandment was, his answer was to love God, love your neighbor, and love yourself. But, that’s not what you get with Southern Fried Fundamentalism.

    In fact, you get the exact opposite.

    See, underneath the question, “Have you received Jesus Christ as your personal lord and savior?” is the subtext of its opposite-- what will happen if you haven’t. And, according to the theology behind the question, the answer is-- you will deep-fry in Hell for eternity.

    Being human and, thus, averse to pain, spending the rest of time falling down a bottomless pit while on fire is generally understood to not be a good thing. Thus, the all-too-human reaction to such a proposal is fear.

    And, that’s where Southern Fried Fundamentalism begins to unravel.

    The Second Epistle of Paul to Timothy, Chapter 1, Verse 7, says, “ For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”

    So, if it has fear attached to it, it’s not from God. That means it’s from the Devil. It does not mean you should wander foolhardy into a buzz-saw. A healthy respect for what the buzz-saw can do is a good thing, but to fear it isn’t.

    Oh, and by the way, did you notice that part about power, love, and a sound mind? Knowledge is power. Money is power. Order is power. Sex is power. And, God wants us to have power. God also wants us to have love, and along with that comes being lovable. And, what about that last part? Apparently, God wants us to have good mental health.

    Hmm.

    That runs pretty opposite to the deprivation-thinking, Munchausen’s-by-proxy, and the general screwed-up-ness that epitomizes Southern Appalachian backwoods fundamentalism.

    Never mind that the word that Jesus used, gehenna, that gets translated into “Hell” was actually the burning garbage heaps outside the city. It would make too much sense to have Jesus saying that, if you didn’t pay attention to what he was saying, your life would be like smoldering trash.

    No, if you want to control people, you’ve got to scare the Hell out of them.

    And, thus, there are an infinite number of wannabe power-brokers who are all too eager to run up to me and ask, “Have you ever been saved?”

    My standard answer is, “Yes.”

    The inevitable follow-up is, “When was it? Where was it? Can you tell me about it?”

    My answer is, “It happened on Good Friday, between noon and three, outside Jerusalem, about 2,000 years ago.”

    And, that usually shuts them up.

    TWH